From f7472b3dbf23a8d095e8deecbc637f271ad0ff0f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: ciregenz <ciregenz@berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:37:32 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] [eric] browser: recover a card that opens straight onto a
 JSON URL (initial-load path + homepage fallback)

---
 .../app/pages/Dashboard/cards/BrowserCard.tsx | 11 ++++++++--
 frontend/src/shared/browserCommandHandler.ts  | 20 +++++++++++++++----
 2 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/frontend/src/app/pages/Dashboard/cards/BrowserCard.tsx b/frontend/src/app/pages/Dashboard/cards/BrowserCard.tsx
index f8d8dd3f..5115b8ec 100644
--- a/frontend/src/app/pages/Dashboard/cards/BrowserCard.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/app/pages/Dashboard/cards/BrowserCard.tsx
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ import {
 import { setLastInteractedBrowser } from '@/shared/browserFocus';
 import BrowserFindBar from './BrowserFindBar';
 import { useBrowserActivity } from '@/shared/useBrowserActivity';
-import { getActionLabel } from '@/shared/browserCommandHandler';
+import { getActionLabel, readDataDocument, recoverCardOffDataWall } from '@/shared/browserCommandHandler';
 import { resolveInput, isGoogleSearch } from '@/shared/resolveUrl';
 import BrowserAgentOverlay from './BrowserAgentOverlay';
 import { useOverlayScrollPassthrough } from '../hooks/interaction/useOverlayScrollPassthrough';
@@ -313,7 +313,14 @@ const BrowserCard: React.FC<Props> = ({
         const doLoad = () => {
           // Reaching dom-ready proves the webview survived Chromium's commit phase (the historical Windows mount segfault). Clear the crash-safety marker.
           if (isWindows) markWindowsWebviewSurvived();
-          wv.loadURL(targetUrl).catch(() => {});
+          wv.loadURL(targetUrl)
+            .then(async () => {
+              // If this card's own entry URL is a raw JSON/API endpoint, it paints an unreadable data
+              // wall; get it onto a real page. (The agent-navigate path is handled in handleNavigate;
+              // this covers the initial load, which never goes through the command handler.)
+              if (await readDataDocument(wv)) recoverCardOffDataWall(wv, targetUrl);
+            })
+            .catch(() => {});
           try {
             (wv as any).setVisualZoomLevelLimits?.(1, 1);
             (wv as any).setZoomFactor?.(1);
diff --git a/frontend/src/shared/browserCommandHandler.ts b/frontend/src/shared/browserCommandHandler.ts
index c7970d91..d45e7080 100644
--- a/frontend/src/shared/browserCommandHandler.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/shared/browserCommandHandler.ts
@@ -332,7 +332,8 @@ async function handleNavigate(wv: BrowserWebview, params: Record<string, any>):
 // Chromium renders any JSON (or JSON-shaped text) response with its built-in viewer, so a navigate
 // to an API endpoint leaves the card showing a wall of raw data. contentType is the reliable tell;
 // re-fetch same-origin (the just-loaded GET, idempotent) to hand the agent the exact bytes.
-async function readDataDocument(wv: BrowserWebview): Promise<{ contentType: string; body: string } | null> {
+// Exported so BrowserCard can reuse the exact same detection for the card's own initial load.
+export async function readDataDocument(wv: BrowserWebview): Promise<{ contentType: string; body: string } | null> {
   const code = `(async () => {
     const ct = String(document.contentType || '').toLowerCase();
     const isJson = ct.startsWith('application/json');
@@ -356,14 +357,25 @@ async function readDataDocument(wv: BrowserWebview): Promise<{ contentType: stri
 
 // Get the card off a raw-data wall: step back to the real page the agent came from, or, if it opened
 // straight onto the data URL, fall back to the site homepage. Fire-and-forget, the agent already has
-// the data; this is purely so a human sees a page instead of JSON.
-function recoverCardOffDataWall(wv: BrowserWebview, dataUrl: string): void {
+// the data; this is purely so a human sees a page instead of JSON. Exported for BrowserCard's own-load path.
+export function recoverCardOffDataWall(wv: BrowserWebview, dataUrl: string): void {
+  let origin = '';
+  try { origin = new URL(dataUrl).origin; } catch { /* keep '' */ }
   try {
     if (wv.canGoBack()) {
       wv.goBack();
+      // A card that opened STRAIGHT onto the data URL has only the webview's blank initial entry
+      // behind it, so goBack lands on about:blank. Detect that and fall back to the site homepage
+      // so the card shows a real page rather than a blank one.
+      window.setTimeout(() => {
+        try {
+          const u = wv.getURL();
+          if ((!u || u === 'about:blank') && origin) void wv.loadURL(origin).catch(() => {});
+        } catch { /* leave as-is */ }
+      }, 400);
       return;
     }
-    void wv.loadURL(new URL(dataUrl).origin).catch(() => {});
+    if (origin) void wv.loadURL(origin).catch(() => {});
   } catch {
     /* leave the card as-is if recovery fails; the data still reached the agent */
   }